101 Grandma Stories

again climb into one of the cow’s ears and appear from the other one in rags!
As the princess seemed healthy, the stepmother sensed something was wrong.
She sent her eldest daughter with the princess, but the princess sang a sweet
lullaby, and put her off to sleep. The same thing happened to the middle
daughter. The youngest did not fall asleep and saw everything. But she didn’t
tell her mother. The next day she, too, went inside Brindle’s ear, but took a
wrong turn so that when she came out, she had become a calf!

97. THE RIGHT BRIDE

As a young shepherd knew three beautiful girls, he couldn’t decide whom he

should marry. When he sought his mother’s advice, she told him to invite
them for dinner and observe how they cut the cheese. The youth did as his
mother had said.

One girl ate the rind along with the cheese, while another cut the rind but
with it she also removed a lot of edible cheese.

The third girl removed the correct amount of rind leaving the edible cheese
intact, and the mother knew for sure. ‘She’s the right one,’ she whispered into
her son’s ear.



98. THE LANTERN ON THE OAK

When time had just begun on earth, the nights were totally dark. Four men
travelling together, reached a village bathed in a silvery light, and were
greatly surprised! In the village square, a large round globe hung from an oak
tree’s branches. A villager told them: ‘This is the moon. Our mayor
purchased it. It has to be regularly cleaned and filled with oil, for which we
pay him a ducat every week.’

The four friends thought that for such a small sum of money, the moon was a
good bargain. They stole it. Taking it to their town, they hung it high up on
another big oak tree. By this time, the real owners knew who’d stolen their
moon and came to that town. The noise they made reached the Lord way up
in the sky! Angry at being disturbed, the Lord sent an angel to bring the
moon, and stuck it to the sky, for it to shine freely on everything!

99. THE POPPY’S RIDDLE

A wicked witch cast an evil spell on a charming woman, changing her into a
poppy. Each evening she became her normal self and spent the night in her
home. One dawn, as she was about to return to the field, she told her
husband: ‘The witch’s spell can be broken if you can select me in the field.’

The man wondered how he would recognise his wife from among thousands
of other poppies. Then, he realised that since she’d been home at night, she

would be the only poppy not covered by dew in the morning!

100. INDECISIVE ELSA

Once, Elsa went to help her husband in harvesting the grain. She pondered:
‘Should I first harvest the grain or have my lunch?’ She ate lunch first, after
which she had a catnap. When her husband came, he found her asleep and
decided to teach his wife a lesson by covering her with a net used for
catching birds.
On waking up, Elsa found herself in a net and began worrying: ‘Am I me or
am I not?’ She decided to go home and ask her family! Finding the front door

closed, she called out: ‘Is Elsa in?’ Her husband answered: ‘She’s here!’ Elsa
thought: ‘If Elsa is inside, then I can’t be Elsa.’ Then, the confused woman
went to all the houses asking if Elsa was there, only to be told: ‘No, she’s not
here.’ Some people say that even today she wanders about, looking for
herself!



101. THE THREE PAINTERS

A town had three famous painters who were very good friends. People used
to come from far and wide to see their exhibitions. The townsfolk thought it
fit to honour the best painter. They decided to hold a competition for only
these three painters. The friends agreed. They were given ten days to create a
new painting. An exhibition was held and many people came. Everyone
admired the beautiful paintings. Some considered that these were the best that
the artists had painted. One artist had painted a lovely garden and the flowers
seemed to be real! The second artist painted an orchard full of shiny red
apples. The apples looked so real that a cow tried to eat them. The judge
congratulated both the painters. Then, he turned to the third painting. It had a
curtain hanging over it. But, when the judge tried to push away the curtain, he
realised that the curtain was not real! He reasoned: ‘I am an intelligent man,
not a dumb cow! Yet, I was deceived by the curtain. So, the artist who made
this painting deserves the prize.’ And even the artist’s friends agreed.